What optical combination defines a catadioptric or compound telescope system?
Answer
A combination of both lenses and mirrors to fold the light path.
Catadioptric telescopes, also known as compound systems, are defined by their integration of both lenses and mirrors within the optical path. This clever combination allows the system to achieve a long effective focal length while keeping the physical length of the telescope tube substantially shorter. Typically, these designs use a spherical or aspheric primary mirror to gather and reflect light, and a lens system, often a corrector lens placed near the front end of the tube, to compensate for optical errors such as spherical aberration inherent to the mirror shape. This folding mechanism optimizes portability and design compactness.
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